Tin-bearing tailings generated during cassiterite processing often still contain valuable metal. Because cassiterite is brittle, grinding during ore beneficiation can produce very fine particles that are difficult to recover using conventional gravity or flotation methods, allowing tin to be lost to tailings streams.
Researchers from Kunming University of Science and Technology have proposed a new integrated process designed to recover both tin and iron from these materials. The study examined tailings containing around 0.20% tin and 21.08% iron, where cassiterite occurs alongside iron-bearing minerals such as hematite and limonite.
The first stage uses staged centrifugal–magnetic separation to pre-concentrate tin- and iron-bearing minerals while discarding…